Being born and raised in Vancouver, more specifically Horseshoe Bay, I have developed a love for this city and the West Coast. Having such incredible hiking trails and forests quite literally in my backyard has lead to an appreciation of the environment and the world around us. I gained a love for our forest through learning how to mountain biking and following that interest. I have slowly found an interest in cars. For elementary school, I went to Ecole Pauline Johnson which is a French immersion school in West Vancouver. Growing up having that opportunity to learn French opened up so many doors, yet it also affected my knowledge of the English language and how to properly write as our English classes were much less intense than the English students. I never had the option of taking shops classes during high school, but now that I own a car I’ve been able to work on it with friends that I’ve made through going to car meets. It creates a sense of joy once you’ve finished working on something on your car or finally found that one problem and fixed it. You feel accomplished and clearly able to see the work that you’ve done immediately come into play; it immediately makes a difference.
The relationship between writing and me has never exactly as good as what I’d like it to be. I’ve always struggled with certain aspects. Yet it is a relationship with an upwards trajectory, not a downward spiral. I’ve always been trying to improve my ability to write and it is slowly but surely improving which is something that I am proud of. I believe that the choice of environmentalism for the theme of the course is an important subject to discuss given current political landscape just south of the border and with the changes that we are seeing in the Gulf of Mexico. I am looking forward to hearing other people’s opinion’s on the changing climate and having discussions when opposing views collide.